DOCSLIB.ORG

Biographical Description for the Historymakers® Video Oral History with Abiodun Oyewole

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Biographical Description for the Historymakers® Video Oral History with Abiodun Oyewole Biographical Description for The HistoryMakers® Video Oral History with Abiodun Oyewole PERSON Oyewole, Abiodun Alternative Names: Abiodun Oyewole; Life Dates: February 25, 1948- Place of Birth: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA Residence: New York, NY Occupations: Spoken Word Artist; Poet Biographical Note Abiodun Oyewole was born Charles Davis on February 25, 1948 in Cincinnati, Ohio. At the age of three, he moved to Queens, New York, with his maternal aunt and her new husband. He was greatly influenced by the jazz and gospel music they played and by poets like Langston Hughes. At fifteen, he and a friend attended a Yoruba Temple in Harlem, New York. There, a Yoruba priest performed a ceremony, giving him the name Abiodun Oyewole, by which he is best known. Oyewole began learning about the Yoruba best known. Oyewole began learning about the Yoruba gods and developed a spiritual connection to the religion, which stressed the significance of praying to one’s ancestors for guidance and strength. Oyewole is a founding member of the American musical spieling group, The Last Poets. On May 19, 1968, the anniversary of Malcolm X’s birthday, Oyewole and two others David Nelson and Gylan Kain read poetry in tribute to Malcolm X at a memorial for him, and the group was born. The group’s message, deeply rooted in Black Nationalism, quickly became recognized within the African American community. The Last Poets along with the artist Gil Scott-Heron are credited as having had a profound effect on the development of hip-hop music. In 1970, the Last Poets were signed by jazz producer Alan Douglas and released their first album. This album includes their classic poem Niggers are Scared of Revolution. The Last Poets' spoken word albums preceded politically laced Rhythm and Blues projects, such as Marvin Gaye’s What's Going On, and foreshadowed the work of hard-hitting rap groups like Public Enemy and Dead Prez. After being sentenced to four years in a North Carolina prison for larceny, Oyewole was forced to leave The Last Poets. He served two and half years of his sentence and during that time attended a nearby college where he earned his B.A. degree. He went on to earn his Ph.D. from Columbia University in New York City, where he has served as a faculty member. Oyewole rejoined The Last Poets, during its 1990s resurgence. The Last Poets took part in Lollapalooza in 1994 and released a new album entitled Holy Terror in 1995 and a book called On a Mission: Selected Poetry and a History of the Last Poets in 1996. Oyewole continues to tour various venues giving lectures on poetry and politics. Oyewole lives in New York City. Related Entries Ps 48 William Wordsworth School [STUDENTOF] Ps 48 William Wordsworth School [STUDENTOF] [from ? to ?] Drake University [STUDENTOF] [from ? to ?] Shaw University [STUDENTOF] [from ? to ?] Columbia University [STUDENTOF] [from ? to ?] The Last Poets [EMPLOYEEOF] [from ? to ?] Harlem Domestic Peace Corps [EMPLOYEEOF] [from ? to ?] Columbia University [EMPLOYEEOF] [from ? to ?] Instructor City College of New York [EMPLOYEEOF] [from ? to ?] Instructor New York City Board of Education [EMPLOYEEOF] [from ? to ?] Consultant.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Objectivity, Interdisciplinary Methodology, and Shared Authority
    ABSTRACT HISTORY TATE. RACHANICE CANDY PATRICE B.A. EMORY UNIVERSITY, 1987 M.P.A. GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY, 1990 M.A. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN- MILWAUKEE, 1995 “OUR ART ITSELF WAS OUR ACTIVISM”: ATLANTA’S NEIGHBORHOOD ARTS CENTER, 1975-1990 Committee Chair: Richard Allen Morton. Ph.D. Dissertation dated May 2012 This cultural history study examined Atlanta’s Neighborhood Arts Center (NAC), which existed from 1975 to 1990, as an example of black cultural politics in the South. As a Black Arts Movement (BAM) institution, this regional expression has been missing from academic discussions of the period. The study investigated the multidisciplinary programming that was created to fulfill its motto of “Art for People’s Sake.” The five themes developed from the program research included: 1) the NAC represented the juxtaposition between the individual and the community, local and national; 2) the NAC reached out and extended the arts to the masses, rather than just focusing on the black middle class and white supporters; 3) the NAC was distinctive in space and location; 4) the NAC seemed to provide more opportunities for women artists than traditional BAM organizations; and 5) the NAC had a specific mission to elevate the social and political consciousness of black people. In addition to placing the Neighborhood Arts Center among the regional branches of the BAM family tree, using the programmatic findings, this research analyzed three themes found to be present in the black cultural politics of Atlanta which made for the center’s unique grassroots contributions to the movement. The themes centered on a history of politics, racial issues, and class dynamics.
    [Show full text]
  • Tom Jennings
    12 | VARIANT 30 | WINTER 2007 Rebel Poets Reloaded Tom Jennings On April 4th this year, nationally-syndicated Notes US radio shock-jock Don Imus had a good laugh 1. Despite the plague of reactionary cockroaches crawling trading misogynist racial slurs about the Rutgers from the woodwork in his support – see the detailed University women’s basketball team – par for the account of the affair given by Ishmael Reed, ‘Imus Said Publicly What Many Media Elites Say Privately: How course, perhaps, for such malicious specimens paid Imus’ Media Collaborators Almost Rescued Their Chief’, to foster ratings through prejudicial hatred at the CounterPunch, 24 April, 2007. expense of the powerless and anyone to the left of 2. Not quite explicitly ‘by any means necessary’, though Genghis Khan. This time, though, a massive outcry censorship was obviously a subtext; whereas dealing spearheaded by the lofty liberal guardians of with the material conditions of dispossessed groups public taste left him fired a week later by CBS.1 So whose cultures include such forms of expression was not – as in the regular UK correlations between youth far, so Jade Goody – except that Imus’ whinge that music and crime in misguided but ominous anti-sociality he only parroted the language and attitudes of bandwagons. Adisa Banjoko succinctly highlights the commercial rap music was taken up and validated perspectival chasm between the US civil rights and by all sides of the argument. In a twinkle of the hip-hop generations, dismissing the focus on the use of language in ‘NAACP: Is That All You Got?’ (www.daveyd.
    [Show full text]
  • ENG 350 Summer12
    ENG 350: THE HISTORY OF HIP-HOP With your host, Dr. Russell A. Potter, a.k.a. Professa RAp Monday - Thursday, 6:30-8:30, Craig-Lee 252 http://350hiphop.blogspot.com/ In its rise to the top of the American popular music scene, Hip-hop has taken on all comers, and issued beatdown after beatdown. Yet how many of its fans today know the origins of the music? Sure, people might have heard something of Afrika Bambaataa or Grandmaster Flash, but how about the Last Poets or Grandmaster CAZ? For this class, we’ve booked a ride on the wayback machine which will take us all the way back to Hip-hop’s precursors, including the Blues, Calypso, Ska, and West African griots. From there, we’ll trace its roots and routes through the ‘parties in the park’ in the late 1970’s, the emergence of political Hip-hop with Public Enemy and KRS-One, the turn towards “gangsta” style in the 1990’s, and on into the current pantheon of rappers. Along the way, we’ll take a closer look at the essential elements of Hip-hop culture, including Breaking (breakdancing), Writing (graffiti), and Rapping, with a special look at the past and future of turntablism and digital sampling. Our two required textbook are Bradley and DuBois’s Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press) and Neal and Forman’s That's the Joint: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader are both available at the RIC campus store. Films shown in part or in whole will include Bamboozled, Style Wars, The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-Boy, Wild Style, and Zebrahead; there will is also a course blog with a discussion board and a wide array of links to audio and text resources at http://350hiphop.blogspot.com/ WRITTEN WORK: An informal response to our readings and listenings is due each week on the blog.
    [Show full text]
  • James Brown Is Alive!
    James Brown Is Alive! Matt Stauffer [=\ [=\ [=\ WRITER’S COMMENT: On the first day of class Seth asked us what kind of music we like. I’ve always been a huge James Brown fan (anyone who can list what he had for dinner and call it a song is all right by me). That he had recently died helped me decide that I would find some way to write about him. But explaining his importance to poetry and orality was difficult. It was a case of knowing James Brown is an important figure, but not knowing how to explain it. The solution was simply to listen to music, and hear James Brown’s influence, and hear what his influences were. People like Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Wilson Pickett, Heavy D and a bunch of others came up, and from there it was just a matter of searching out the right information to help connect those dots. Also, I’m a big fan of the word “eschew.” —Matt Stauffer INSTRUCTOR’S COMMENT: My most immediate reaction to Matt Stauffer’s work in this essay was admiration for his ability to bridge disciplines, bringing together African American history, musicology, literary history, and close reading. As his instructor for English 4, I can see the way he integrates his reading in sound poetry and the theories of Walter Ong and Roland Barthes with his long-standing interest in funk, soul and hip-hop, the truly popular poetries of our era since the 1960s. His willingness to take seriously the ‘get back’-s and ‘hit me’-s of James Brown—sounds we usually hear but do not listen to—indeed enlivens our experience of the Godfather of Soul.
    [Show full text]
  • Fear of a Muslim Planet
    SOUND UNBOUND edited by Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England 6 2008 Paul D. Miller All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any elec- tronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information stor- age and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. For information about special quantity discounts, please email special_sales@mitpress .mit.edu This book was set in Minion and Syntax on 3B2 by Asco Typesetters, Hong Kong, and was printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sound unbound / edited by Paul D. Miller. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-262-63363-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Music—21st century—History and criticism. 2. Music and technology. 3. Popular culture—21st century. I. DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid. ML197.S694 2008 780.9005—dc22 2007032443 10987654321 Contents Foreword by Cory Doctorow ix 1 An Introduction, or My (Ambiguous) Life with Technology 1 Steve Reich 2 In Through the Out Door: Sampling and the Creative Act 5 Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid 3 The Future of Language 21 Saul Williams 4 The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism Mosaic 25 Jonathan Lethem 5 ‘‘Roots and Wires’’ Remix: Polyrhythmic Tricks and the Black Electronic 53 Erik Davis 6 The Life and Death of Media 73 Bruce Sterling 7 Un-imagining Utopia 83 Dick Hebdige 8 Freaking the Machine: A Discussion about Keith Obadike’s Sexmachines 91 Keith + Mendi Obadike 9 Freeze Frame: Audio, Aesthetics, Sampling, and Contemporary Multimedia 97 Ken Jordan and Paul D.
    [Show full text]
  • 23 Teaching on the Level: the Poetics of Rap Kirsten Bartholomew
    Teaching American Literature: A Journal of Theory and Practice Winter 2008 (2:1) Teaching On the Level: The Poetics of Rap Kirsten Bartholomew Ortega, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs Academic attention to rap music and hip-hop culture has come a long way from Richard Shusterman's 1991 opening claim in a New Literary History article that, "in the view of both the culturally elite and the so-called general public, rap music lurks in the underworld of aesthetic respectability."1 Wonderful intellectual work has been published in the last two decades which defends the cultural value of hip-hop and rap music (e.g., work by Michael Eric Dyson), which provides a history of hip-hop as a movement and developments in rap music (e.g., Tricia Rose's book Black Noise ), and which increasingly interrogates the nuances, problems, and complexities of hip-hop and rap (e.g., Gwendolyn D. Pough's scholarship of and editing of work about women and hip-hop). These kinds of cultural studies projects have been essential to maintaining a productive intellectual discussion about rap, but I have yet to see specific discussions of how to bring rap lyrics into the classroom from a deeply literary perspective. In the last decade that I have been teaching poetry—first at the secondary level and now at the undergraduate level—I have heard repeated affirmation of the belief that rap lyrics are a respectable form of poetry that can be taught in the classroom. Teachers, especially at the secondary level, are paying more attention to the ways that rap lyrics offer a potential to reach students who would otherwise be turned off by poetry, to refute the kind of claim made famous in 1991 by Dana Gioia that poetry is dead, 2 to examine a distinctly African-American form of poetics, and to keep lessons tuned-in to students' popular culture knowledges.
    [Show full text]
  • ENG 350 Summer11
    ENG 350: THE HISTORY OF HIP-HOP With your host, Dr. Russell A. Potter, a.k.a. Professa RAp Mondays and Wednesdays, 6:00-9:00, Craig-Lee 252 http://350hiphop.blogspot.com/ In its rise to the top of the American popular music scene, Hip-hop has taken on all comers, and issued beatdown after beatdown. Yet how many of its fans today know the origins of the music? Sure, people might have heard something of Afrika Bambaataa or Grandmaster Flash, but how about the Last Poets or Grandmaster CAZ? For this class, we’ve booked a ride on the wayback machine which will take us all the way back to Hip-hop’s precursors, including the Blues, Calypso, Ska, and West African griots. From there, we’ll trace its roots and routes through the ‘parties in the park’ in the late 1970’s, the emergence of political Hip-hop with Public Enemy and KRS-One, the turn towards “gangsta” style in the 1990’s, and on into the current pantheon of rappers. Along the way, we’ll take a closer look at the essential elements of Hip-hop culture, including Breaking (breakdancing), Writing (graffiti), and Rapping, with a special look at the past and future of turntablism and digital sampling. Our one required textbook, Bradley and DuBois’s Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press) is AVAILABLE AT THE OFF-CAMPUS BOOKSTORE ON SMITH ST. Films shown in part or in whole will include Bamboozled, Style Wars, The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-Boy, Wild Style, and Zebrahead; there will also be a Blog with a discussion board and a wide array of links to audio and text resources.
    [Show full text]
  • Abstract One Love: Collective Consciousness in Rap and Poetry
    Abstract One Love: Collective Consciousness in Rap and Poetry of the Hip-Hop Generation by Austin Harold Hart April, 2012 Thesis Director: John Hoppenthaler Major Department: English (Literature and Poetry) This study aims to offer an understanding of hip-hop culture through which three concepts are elucidated: (1) the existence and dimensions of a collective consciousness within rap and poetry of the hip-hop generation (Allison Joseph, A. Van Jordan, Terrance Hayes, Major Jackson, Taylor Mali, and Kevin Coval); (2) a poetics of rap—to parallel the influence seen/suggested among the selected poets; and (3) an analysis of the manner(s) in which the poetry of these more serious, academic artists reflects an influence of hip-hop culture. My thesis suggests that these poets are indeed influenced by the culture in which they grew up, and in their verse, this influence can be seen through linguistic playfulness, sonic density, layered meaning and usage through form and content, and the connection to a larger cultural, collective consciousness fed by specific social bodies. Poetic analysis, as well as studies of vernacular and oral traditions, has allowed me to explore these concepts and theories from a wider spectrum, and with regard to the work of the poets, an original perspective. Providing a deeper understanding of artists, their identities, places, and dreams within their work, this study begins to offer some insight into notions of the ways in which individuals might participate in cultural conservation. One Love: Collective Consciousness
    [Show full text]
  • The Sounds of Liberation: Resistance, Cultural Retention, and Progressive Traditions for Social Justice in African American Music
    THE SOUNDS OF LIBERATION: RESISTANCE, CULTURAL RETENTION, AND PROGRESSIVE TRADITIONS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE IN AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSIC A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Professional Studies by Luqman Muhammad Abdullah May 2009 © 2009 Luqman Muhammad Abdullah ABSTRACT The cultural production of music in the Black community has traditionally operated as much more than a source of entertainment. In fact, my thesis illustrates how progressive traditions for social justice in Black music have acted as a source of agency and a tool for resistance against oppression. This study also explains how the music of African Americans has served as a primary mechanism for disseminating their cultural legacy. I have selected four Black artists who exhibit the aforementioned principles in their musical production. Bernice Johnson Reagon, John Coltrane, Curtis Mayfield and Gil Scott-Heron comprise the talented cadre of musicians that exemplify the progressive Black musical tradition for social justice in their respective genres of gospel, jazz, soul and spoken word. The methods utilized for my study include a socio-historical account of the origins of Black music, an overview of the artists’ careers, and a lyrical analysis of selected songs created by each of the artists. This study will contribute to the body of literature surrounding the progressive roles, functions and utilities of African American music. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH My mother garners the nickname “gypsy” from her siblings due to the fact that she is always moving and relocating to new and different places.
    [Show full text]
  • Matias Corbett Garcez Gil Scott-Heron: a Black Bullet
    MATIAS CORBETT GARCEZ GIL SCOTT-HERON: A BLACK BULLET THROUGH THE HEART OF WHITE AMERICA Florianópolis, 2015 2 3 MATIAS CORBETT GARCEZ GIL SCOTT-HERON: A BLACK BULLET THROUGH THE HEART OF WHITE AMERICA Tese de doutorado apresentada à Banca Examinadora do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Inglês do Centro de Comunicação e Expressão da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, como requisito parcial para a obtenção do título de Doutor em Estudos Culturais, linha de pesquisa Poéticas de Resistência, sob a orientação da Professora Doutora Maria Lúcia Milléo Martins. Florianópolis, 2015 Ficha de identificação da obra elaborada pelo autor, através do Programa de Geração Automática da Biblioteca Universitária da UFSC. Garcez, Matias Corbett Gil Scott-Heron: A Black Bullet Through The Heart Of White America / Matias Corbett Garcez ; orientadora, Maria Lúcia Milléo Martins - Florianópolis, SC, 2015. 292 p. Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão. Programa de Pós Graduação em Literatura. Inclui referências 1. Literatura. 2. Gil Scott-Heron. 3. Poéticas de Resistência . 4. Contra-narrativas . 5. FonoFicção. I. Milléo Martins, Maria Lúcia. II. Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Literatura. III. Título. 6 7 Dedicated to my wife and love, Cristiane, and my son, Ravi. 8 9 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank CNPQ and Projeto de Extensão: Cursos Extracurriculares for the financial support granted throughout my studies. I would also like to thank Professor Maria Lúcia Milléo Martins for accepting me as her advisee, and for all the guidance and support during my research. I would also like to express my gratitude to my family, who gave me a lot of support, love, and motivation.
    [Show full text]
  • The Joyful Sounds of Being Your Own Black Self
    THE JOYFUL SOUNDS OF BEING YOUR OWN BLACK SELF By AMIR ASIM GILMORE A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY Department of Teaching & Learning MAY 2019 © Copyright by AMIR ASIM GILMORE, 2019 All Rights Reserved © Copyright by AMIR ASIM GILMORE, 2019 All Rights Reserved To the Faculty of Washington State University: The members of the Committee appointed to examine the dissertation of AMIR ASIM GILMORE find it satisfactory and recommend that it be accepted. Pamela Jean Bettis, Ph.D., Chair Paula Groves Price, Ph.D. John Joseph Lupinacci, Ph.D. Anthony Gordon Rud Jr., Ph.D. Francene T. Watson, Ph.D. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENT This project has truly been a labor of love, as it takes a village to write a dissertation. I would first like to thank my parents. Without them, none of this would be possible. I would like to thank my dad, Cleveland Gilmore for inviting me into the Black Study through jazz. It is through jazz, I developed the identity of being an Edtiste. I would like to thank my mom, Rosita Faulkner, for showing me how to refuse and what mundane refusal looks like as a daily practice. It was her refusal that helped guide me away from doing traditional social science research. How dope is it to say that your parents made the dissertation? Very dope! While the academy might recognize and acknowledge me as the first Ph.D. in my family, my mom and dad will always be the first doctors in my eyes.
    [Show full text]
  • “New York Is a State of Mind”: Race, Marginalization, and Cultural Expression In
    “New York is a State of Mind”: Race, Marginalization, and Cultural Expression in Postwar New York City by Jordan Brenner A thesis presented to the University of Waterloo in fulfillment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Master of Arts in History Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2011 Jordan Brenner 2011 Author’s Declaration I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. ii ABSTRACT While the urban crisis debate has expanded to examine a variety of American cities, the general exploration of how African Americans have responded to, and challenged, racial and urban inequality remains focused on grassroots political and community activism. This account of postwar New York City seeks to examine how structural discrimination created racial inequality, how African Americans suffered from a complex system of social consequences that further marginalized them, and how a politically conscious art form emerged from the destitution of the urban crisis. As illustrated through Robert Merton’s theory of Anomie, restricted opportunity for social and economic advancement created an environment vulnerable to crime. Not only were African American neighbourhoods susceptible to crime, but the conservative agenda tended to demonize African Americans as dangerous criminals, targeting them in the rise of mass incarceration. Resources were funneled into imprisoning more people, and African Americans were disproportionately represented in the American corrections system. As a result of this, African Americans were consistently excluded from certain jobs and denied basic civil rights.
    [Show full text]